Worshipers Reflect as They Celebrate Easter at Sunrise

Vicky Hoffman had heard of the splendor of the Hollywood Bowl Easter Sunrise Service but had never attended the 81-year-old event. So she woke up shortly before 5 a.m. Sunday, left her Sherman Oaks home with a friend and headed for the Bowl.

But instead of competing for a parking space with throngs of worshipers, Hoffman was greeted by a dozen warmly dressed volunteers who told her the ceremony was canceled because of renovation work.

They suggested she go to another service a few minutes away at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills cemetery.

“We’re up, we might as well go,” a disappointed Hoffman said to her friend, Marie McNeal, while clutching a coffee mug.

Despite the absence of the famed Los Angeles event this year, thousands of people from Hollywood to Orange County still celebrated the day.

While most said they attended the early morning services out of tradition, others said they felt compelled to worship because the war in Iraq weighed heavily on their minds or they had seen Mel Gibson’s recent film about the Crucifixion.

“I just saw ‘The Passion of the Christ,’ and I felt moved to come to the Bowl this morning,” said Kyla May, a Valley Village resident who was considering going to the Forest Lawn service as a substitute. “I wanted to see the sun come up and think about how [Jesus] transcended death. It would be very powerful.”

From the cold sands of Will Rogers State Beach, where hundreds prayed as their children built sand castles and seagulls circled, to the rooftop of the Union Rescue Mission in downtown Los Angeles, worshipers had the first glimpses of Southern California sunshine.

“It was a really amazing morning,” said Karen Kilwein of Union Rescue Mission.

The mission’s event drew nearly 250 of skid row’s poorest and most desolate to mingle on a rooftop peppered with Easter lilies and resonating with live music.

“It was a nice mix of people who would’ve probably never mixed,” she said.

At Rock Harbor Church in Costa Mesa, more than 4,000 jeans-clad, flip-flop wearing hipsters gathered under a tent at the Orange County Fairgrounds for an Easter service that seemed more like a rock concert than a religious observance.

Teaching pastor Mike Erre, 33, delivered his sermon sans tie, his blue shirt untucked from his khakis. Congregants came clutching cellphones and Starbucks frappuccinos, looking as if they just walked off the beach.

Sunday’s message, though, was the same at Rock Harbor Church as at churches and services elsewhere in Southern California.

“He is risen,” Erre said, noting that Easter marks Jesus’ resurrection after the Crucifixion.

Near the Hollywood Bowl, a steady flow of cars made its way past headstones to an outdoor event next to the Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills’ Hall of Liberty, where organizers anticipated many Bowl regulars.

Against the backdrop of a giant mosaic of Revolutionary War scenes, 2,000 white folding chairs were occupied by an eclectic collection of worshipers. Some wore suits and ties, others were bundled in scarves and blankets. One woman was clad in 1970s punk-rock regalia.

As the sky slowly turned from black to purple to blue, the crowd listened to hymns by a 120-member youth choir from the Grace Baptist Church in Santa Clarita.

During the choir’s final song, a flock of doves was released into the sky to the surprise of the crowd.

“This was one of the nicest I’ve attended, but it’s still not the Bowl,” said Suzanne Simmons, a Park Mesa Heights resident who has sampled several sunrise services.

Nestled between a volleyball net and a lifeguard stand, hundreds of barefoot worshipers sat on beach chairs and huddled under blankets on the sands of Will Rogers State Beach.

The event, a collaboration of several churches in West L.A. now on its 27th year, began as the sun rose from behind the Santa Monica Mountains and ended nearly an hour later with several baptisms in the chilly waters of the Pacific Ocean.

“It’s unique and it’s right in God’s creation,” said Will Bredberg, a pastor at the First Baptist Church of West Los Angeles. “Every year, it grows a little bit,” he said. “You have to imagine it was just like this with the sun coming up during the Resurrection.”

To many, the setting was perfect for reflection.

“We come here because it’s ecumenical,” said Alice Wroblicky of Pacific Palisades, attending for the 10th year with her husband. “It’s very different for us. It’s very inspiring for us.”

Although it was not the first time they witnessed a service where pastors lectured in gym pants and baptisms were performed in wetsuits, they said the event had added importance this year because of the conflict in Iraq.

“That’s in our prayers,” said Emil Wroblicky, wearing a green Marines cap, himself a World War II veteran of the corps. “I know it’s tough for them. Their pain must be tremendous, but we look at the Resurrection and see that there is life after this.”

The war wasn’t mentioned in the service, however, and many first-timers either attended at the behest of friends or were motivated by the Gibson movie.

“I’ve been very inspired by the movie,” said Peggy Galveda of Playa del Rey, already wearing a sun visor an hour before the start of the service and holding a warm cup of coffee. “I feel close to God.”

But current events were still foremost in her mind.

“You’re much more aware of God and Christianity due to the state of the world,” she said.

As the church band -- its equipment wedged into the yellow sand -- lifted the crowd to its feet, the Wroblicky couple looked to the ocean.

“A lot of times we see dolphins come up,” Emil Wroblicky said. “They must hear the music.”

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Times staff writer Kimi Yoshino contributed to this report.